10/09/2026
HABEMUS EPISCOPUM NOVUM! ✨🤍
The Diocese of Tagbilaran joyfully welcomes home one of her own.
The Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, has appointed His Excellency Most Rev. Crispin Barrete “Bai” Varquez, D.D., as the 8th Bishop of Tagbilaran.
For the Diocese of Tagbilaran, this is more than the appointment of a new shepherd. It is a homecoming.
Bishop Varquez is a son of this Diocese - formed in its seminaries, nourished by its communities, and shaped by years of priestly ministry among its people. Now, he returns to the local Church that helped form him, entrusted with the pastoral care of the very Diocese he once served.
Born on December 5, 1960, in Sevilla, Bohol, Bishop Varquez began his priestly formation at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Tagbilaran, where he earned his degree in Philosophy. He later pursued his Theology studies at St. Augustine Major Seminary in Tagaytay, Cavite.
He was ordained to the priesthood on April 14, 1989.
His first priestly assignment brought him to Mindoro, where he served as an assistant parish priest. He would later dedicate a significant part of his ministry to the formation of future priests, serving as a formator at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Tagbilaran and at St. Augustine Major Seminary in Tagaytay during the 1990s until 2000.
Upon returning to parish ministry, he served as parish priest in several parishes of the Diocese of Tagbilaran. In January 2007, he was appointed Vicar General of the Diocese, serving closely in the pastoral and administrative life of the local Church.
His ministry then led him beyond Bohol.
On August 4, 2007, he was appointed Bishop of Borongan. He received episcopal ordination later that year and was installed as the sixth Bishop of Borongan, beginning a long episcopal ministry among the people of Eastern Samar.
For nearly two decades, he has served as pastor and shepherd of the Diocese of Borongan, accompanying its clergy, religious, and lay faithful in their life and mission as a local Church.
Now, the Lord’s providence brings him home.
The man who once served this Diocese as a seminarian, priest, formator, parish priest, and Vicar General now returns in a new role: as its Bishop.
There is something deeply meaningful in this homecoming. A bishop does not cease to be a son of the Church simply because he is entrusted with the office of shepherd. Rather, his identity as a son becomes the foundation of his fatherly care.
He comes home as a son - but he comes home to serve as a father.
As the 8th Bishop of Tagbilaran, Bishop Crispin “Bai” Varquez will now be called to lead, sanctify, teach, and accompany the People of God entrusted to his pastoral care.
The Diocese of Tagbilaran receives him with gratitude for the gift of his ministry, with joy for his return, and with confidence in the grace of God who has guided his vocation from Bohol to Eastern Samar and now back home.
After years away, a familiar son returns.
And the son of the Diocese comes home as its father.
Welcome home, Bishop Bai.
May the Lord grant him wisdom, strength, courage, and joy as he begins this new chapter of his ministry among the people of Tagbilaran.
